The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Step rails have become extremely popular in recent years, with the growing popularity of vehicles such as SUVs, vans and pickup trucks. Such vehicles, because they typically have greater ground clearance than other types of vehicles (e.g., sedans and station wagons) often require some form of step to assist the occupant in entering and exiting the vehicle comfortably. It is also understood that a step rail system must provide a step surface large enough to provide comfortable assistance to the user for ingress and egress to and from the vehicle, as well as providing improved access to load carrying areas of the vehicle, while safely supporting the mass of the user or users of the vehicle.
There is also growing interest in producing step rail systems which complement the look and styling of the vehicle they are used on, without compromising the load supporting capability of the step rail system. Further growing interest is in engineering step rails that can be made in a highly cost effective manner and which do not add significant unneeded weight to the vehicle, and which do not complicate the assembly/attachment of the step rail to the vehicle, and which are aerodynamically efficient.